Belefia Parks They say having the disease isn’t a death sentence but living with it almost seem like death is around the corner though. I haven’t always dealt with Sickle Cell complications. I don’t recall having crisis as a child; it wasn’t until I got older that SC began to played a major part in my life. At one point it seem to had been making up for lost time. I went from feeling like I was being deprived of living, discourage to talk about Sickle Cell, realizing how blessed I was and laughing through the pain. My first memories of how serious this thing was came when I entered high school. I was just a typical teenage male, desiring...

The doctors never told my mother that by she and my father having Sickle Cell trait, they were at risk of me having Sickle Cell. It turns out her doctor knew this information and withheld it from her when 6 weeks after my PICU test, I was diagnosed with SS. She kindly threatened to sue them, and they responded by giving her all of her money back to pay for her hospital visits. My mom and I consistently had to fight the system, and always be one step ahead when it came to my medical care. My mom being a single mother until I was like 4 did the best she could with raising me & getting information. In...